Vidna Obmana - An Opera for Four Fusion Works, Act 3

2006. Act III of VidnaObmana's series AN OPERA FOR FOUR FUSION WORKS is now ready! Remember, Act I was released in a four-CD case, and acts II through IV are sold in a simple paper sleeve (with booklet) to be inserted into the Act I case.

Each of the four acts of this project utilize different source recordings by a different artist. This time the featured artist is Kenneth Kirschner, performing on piano. The treatments and processing by vidnaObmana this time are quite daring and experimental, edging at times into the realm of "glitch" or subtle noise experimenation. Overall, though, the feel is of gentle piano sonics, with a smooth and hypnotizing atmosphere rarely disturbed by well-placed bits of digital distortion.

Belgian ambient experimentalist Vidna Obmana is working at the height of his powers here, as he nears the end of his 4-part "Opera" cycle.

The usual disclaimer applies... this music is not in any real sense "opera" music, and the term is used only to suggest the varied, multi-part quality of this ongoing release.

Reviews

"The fact that Dirk Serries, for twenty or so years, the man behind Vidna
Obmana, started a new 'band' (again of just himself), did lead to the
conclusion that Vidna Obmana was dead, or on hold at least. But it's not. Or
perhaps it is, and is Hypnos just a bit late, releasing this album. It's the
third act in a series of four. The first one was by Vidna Obmana himself,
and on the second he transformed the saxophone sounds (see Vital Weekly
420). For the third act Vidna Obmana treats the piano sounds, played by
Kenneth Kirschner, who is perhaps best known for similar collaborations with
Taylor Deupree. The piano playing of Kirschner is quiet, just a few notes
every once in a while, and the recordings he makes are usually finely
treated with small clicks and hiss. This is excellent music for Vidna Obmana
to expand his ambient tapestries on. Vidna Obmana adds guitar and
synthesizers, after which he locks the music into his chamber of sound
effects, looping all the sounds, making small shifting changes while certain
elements keep returning ad infinitum. The piano sounds by Kirschner remain
audible throughout this work, it doesn't seem that they are treated to such
an extent. In the warm ambient bath created by Vidna Obmana they find a good
home. Soberly orchestrated, the dedication to Morton Feldman is no surprise
(although perhaps many more notes are played here than on average Feldman
composition). Vidna Obmana doesn't necessarily add something new to ambient,
but his music still belongs to the best the genre has to offer."
--Vital E-Zine, Frans DeWaard